README.md

@@ -602,7 +602,7 @@ tokens add cost in proportion to the output.
   as JSON; `--data-path` layers over it.
 - **A bare reference draws each time; a reference path is held.** `{/p} {/p}`
   is two draws, as `{word} {word}` is, while every `{/p.first}` in one render reads
-  one draw, and a bare `{/p}` rendering it beside them is a load error: a bare token
+  one draw, and a bare `{/p}` beside them is a load error: a bare token
   is by contract an independent draw, a path pins its level, and a fresh draw of a
   pinned level could show another row.
 - **Reference sigils follow the filesystem.** `/` is the root, `.` this file's
@@ -691,6 +691,12 @@ tokens add cost in proportion to the output.
   different things — an operand pins the value its own render produced and stops at a
   reference, a path pins every level it passes through — so one walk would carry both
   rules and both scopes anyway, and tell them apart at every step.
+- **A record makes its draw maps up front, a `Fake` on its first read.** A record's
+  columns always read through the render's draws, so making the maps where the set is
+  declared keeps them on that frame's stack. A `Fake` often reads no reference path at
+  all, and making them anyway cost about a fifth of the cheapest render, so it makes
+  them on the first read instead — which the allocation gate prices at two heap
+  allocations, paid only by a render that shares a draw.
 - **A category never references itself, and a record's fences run at load.** A category
   is one unit: a reference back into it — `{/users.first}` inside `users` — describes a
   draw other than the fields beside it, so `New` refuses it and the sibling path stays

draw.go

@@ -115,8 +115,13 @@ func checkNestedDrawGroup(fields map[string]node, group string) error {
 // drawCheck fences each template of a scope as a render of its own, remembering which nodes read a
 // reference path.
 type drawCheck struct {
-	reads  map[node]bool
-	splits map[node]bool
+	memo map[readsMemo]bool
+}
+
+// readsMemo is one answer reads has given: for a node, and for each place it stops.
+type readsMemo struct {
+	n           node
+	stopAtGroup bool
 }
 
 // checkDrawGroup refuses a draw group that splits nothing: one whose render reads every reference
@@ -162,41 +167,30 @@ func (c *drawCheck) checkRecordDraws(path string, n node) error {
 
 // readsPath reports whether rendering n reads a reference path, short of a repeat, which renders
 // over draws of its own.
-func (c *drawCheck) readsPath(n node) bool {
-	if r, done := c.reads[n]; done {
-		return r
-	}
-	r := false
-	for _, e := range renderEdges(n) {
-		if a, _, isRef := refRead(n, e.label); (isRef && len(a.tail) > 0) || (!repeats(e.to) && c.readsPath(e.to)) {
-			r = true
-			break
-		}
-	}
-	if c.reads == nil {
-		c.reads = map[node]bool{}
-	}
-	c.reads[n] = r
-	return r
-}
+func (c *drawCheck) readsPath(n node) bool { return c.reads(n, false) }
 
 // splitsDraws reports whether rendering n reads a reference path that n's own draw group answers
 // for: one outside a repeat and outside a nested draw group, which hold their own draws.
-func (c *drawCheck) splitsDraws(n node) bool {
-	if r, done := c.splits[n]; done {
+func (c *drawCheck) splitsDraws(n node) bool { return c.reads(n, true) }
+
+// reads walks what rendering n renders for a reference path, stopping at a repeat — and at a nested
+// draw group when stopAtGroup — since each holds draws of its own.
+func (c *drawCheck) reads(n node, stopAtGroup bool) bool {
+	k := readsMemo{n, stopAtGroup}
+	if r, done := c.memo[k]; done {
 		return r
 	}
 	r := false
 	for _, e := range renderEdges(n) {
-		if a, _, isRef := refRead(n, e.label); (isRef && len(a.tail) > 0) || (!repeats(e.to) && !grouped(e.to) && c.splitsDraws(e.to)) {
+		if a, _, isRef := refRead(n, e.label); (isRef && len(a.tail) > 0) || (!repeats(e.to) && !(stopAtGroup && grouped(e.to)) && c.reads(e.to, stopAtGroup)) {
 			r = true
 			break
 		}
 	}
-	if c.splits == nil {
-		c.splits = map[node]bool{}
+	if c.memo == nil {
+		c.memo = map[readsMemo]bool{}
 	}
-	c.splits[n] = r
+	c.memo[k] = r
 	return r
 }
 

path.go

@@ -89,7 +89,7 @@ func unreachableInChoice(c *choice, want string) error {
 
 // checkPath proves a dotted tail resolves whichever way the draws go — a choice
 // must carry the rest of the path in the set every variant shares — and that no
-// level a path reads carries a repeat or a group, which one draw of it could not
+// level a path reads carries a repeat or a drawGroup, which one draw of it could not
 // apply. So a path that validates here resolves on every render, and a typo is a
 // New-time error.
 func checkPath(n node, tail []string, level string) error {